The third round of the 2021 Formula One Championship as scheduled has arrived at Portimao for the Portuguese Grand Prix. Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has claimed pole position for the race on Sunday. Lewis Hamilton was unable to claim his 100th career pole but will start alongside on the front row. But Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was quite some time behind the Mercedes duo to claim the third spot on the grid. Here is now qualifying went down.
2021 Portuguese Grand Prix Qualifying Q1 Results
Notably, Hamilton struggled to get a valid time in due to his first lap being deleted for exceeding track limits. The seven-time champion eventually got the job done. Q1 saw the bottom five positions on the grid being finalised. A surprise was Daniel Ricciardo finding himself eliminated after Q1 and will start 16th on the grid for McLaren. Behind him will be Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin in 17th. On 18th will be the Williams of Nicolas Latifi with the two Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin in 19th and 20th on the grid.
2021 Portuguese Grand Prix Qualifying Q2 Results
Red Bull set their Q2 times on the medium tyres while Mercedes chose the soft tyres which is what they will respectively start the race on Sunday with. But after Q2, the bottom five of the remaining fifteen were eliminated. George Russell drove a brilliant lap to place himself in the Williams up to 11th on the grid. Antonio Giovinazzi will start from 12th for Alfa Romeo ahead of Fernando Alonso in the Alpine in P13. Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri and the Kimi Raikkonen in the Alfa Romeo will start their Portuguese Grand Prix from 14th and 15th on the grid respectively.
2021 Portuguese Grand Prix Qualifying Q3 Results
Q3 meant that it was time for the much anticipated top 10 shoot out. The tension was growing as to see whether Hamilton would take his 100th career pole, or would Bottas or Verstappen outdrive the Brit. On the first run, Bottas topped the charts but Hamilton was just +0.007 slower. Verstappen’s time was deleted for exceeding track limits at turn 4. On his second hot lap, Verstappen was only third fastest. Bottas was the only driver to find more time in Q3, but his second run was slower than his first. Thankfully for the Finn, Hamilton was also unable to better his time meaning Bottas will start the race from pole with Hamilton alongside on the front row.
But Red Bull have a second-row lockout with Verstappen in third and Sergio Perez in fourth. Carlos Sainz will start fifth for Ferrari with Esteban Ocon in sixth for Alpine. Behind them will be Lando Norris in the McLaren and other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, seventh and eighth place respectively. Pierre Gasly in the AlphaTauri will start from ninth ahead of Sebastian Vettel in 10th for Aston Martin.
